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Tag Archives: psychological drama

I still don’t know what Paul Thomas Anderson was thinking with Inherent Vice. As I wrote at the time, that film was so out of character for PT Anderson as to be unrecognizable. Phantom Thread represents, at least relatively speaking, a return to form. I say relatively speaking, because unlike his past projects, I doubt that this film will stick with me over the years so strongly — but only time will tell I suppose. The edginess of his earlier cinematic style seems missing, or at least transformed.

Still, Phantom Thread is a strong and lovely picture. The RT consensus:

It’s endlessly fascinating to watch the actor and artist behind the camera (sharers in the same creative obsession) negotiate a hard truce between art and life. Anderson is deliberate and cunning about revealing the secrets he’s sewn into the fabric of his spellbinder of a film. Taking full measure of Phantom Thread may require more than one viewing – a challenge any genuine movie lover will be eager to accept. Our advice for now: just sit back and behold.

Looking over all these reviews makes me think the film may stick with me more so than I am now thinking. Certainly, the performances are absolutely riveting — perhaps more so than any picture of the last year. For now, considered among the films of 2017: about on par with Lady Macbeth. 8/10

The Square is interesting, perhaps, but more so self-important. Pretentious even. It is ultimately a small movie, and I’m not talking budget. I didn’t hate it, but there’s too much nonsense and weak elements masquerading as something bigger — a veil I saw right through. 4/10

PS: The fact that so many critics thought The Square better than director Ruben Östlund’s previous work Force Majeure lays bare why I write a movie blog. A lesser critic called The Square “Smart, Sharp.” I got news for you: I’m smarter than you, and I say The Square was not smart. The ape-man finale that you thought was so clever was ridiculously untenable.

Top: “A Bigger Splash” by David Hockney; Bottom: A Bigger Splash, currently in theaters

There will be two “Bigger Splash” movies this year. One of them is a documentary on David Hockney, the great Los Angeles-based artist.

The movie A Bigger Splash takes on a theme I’ve seen in a few indies lately: that of vacations going south. Force Majeure, The Two Faces of January, and The Loneliest Planet are examples of this concept in recent years. Terror flicks like I Spit on Your Grave or Hostel also technically fall under this category, though we’re talking there about a very different type of film, obviously. It’s a great storytelling tool because it allows ordinary people to be placed out of their element, out of their comfort zone. Vacations allow ordinary people to face extraordinary circumstances.

Force Majeure was the best at this, in the psychological drama side of the bucket. One of the problems with A Bigger Splash is that it is not completely confident of what it is trying to be. As a psycho-sexual drama, it had me pretty well gripped for about the first three-quarters, at which point it took the inevitable turn as given away in the trailer — and suddenly became a completely different and much more mundane picture. Because of this, I was going to render a marginal thumbs-up, but the film did stick around in my head just long enough for a 7/10.

Comparison Notes: besides the films mentioned above, Swimming Pool (2003) — one of those movies I’ll have to see again to post on; La Cérémonie (highly recommended)

Ich Seh Ich Seh, marketed in English as Goodnight Mommy, is a captivating little Austrian psychological drama. Though being marketed as a horror film, it is hardly anything of the sort. It does a great job of throwing us in this intriguing world, a house set amongst nature. Makes me want to visit Austria immediately! And it does a good job building its story of two boys suspicious of their mother and her odd behavior.

But I don’t like it when a movie — in its final three minutes — yells out to the audience: “Ha Ha! We got you! We were lying the whole time!” Oh yea, you got me. Boy was I a fool to believe the entire movie up to that point. Silly me.

And when the entire film is based on that lie, then the entire film collapses upon its revelation. Something else – another lie, but a tiny white lie compared to the big one at the end: This film’s title is Ich Seh Ich Seh (English: I See I See). Nowhere in the film is it titled Goodnight Mommy — so if you’re going to sell it like that, then put it in the movie. Otherwise just translate the title, which is much more relevant to the film’s content. A marginal thumbs-down because of the cop-out ending; 5/10

Some films are harder to watch than others – not because they’re bad, which makes for a different sort of painful viewing, but because they touch on areas of such profound moral discomfort that the mere act of watching makes us feel complicit. We feel like gutless witnesses to a crime.

What’s happening here should be transparent to anyone watching almost from the start, but the point is that it’s anything but obvious to the people involved. You might be struck with an air of incredulity, but the events depicted happened almost exactly as shown. And though we may know what’s going on here, we don’t have any idea how far it will go.

While watching, the scope of Compliance seems to ride too much a singular note — but that note is persistent, unrelenting, and very creepy. It’s a small movie, but boy it got under my skin. If you want to get to some very disturbing places, this movie is for you. 7/10

A24 films continues its leadership among independent film with Ex Machina, a thoroughly engrossing psychological sci-fi drama. Taking Her and adding a physical dimension to ultra-humanlike AI did not quite reach Her heights, nor does probing Under the Skin attain that lofty plateau. As good as Ex Machina is, it doesn’t push the envelope of machine-human interaction in the way it might have.

So, driving home, I thought “it’s a solid 8.” That one could consider it the double episode Star Trek always wanted to muster but never quite could. That it worked as pure psychological drama, like a good Mamet film. That we are dealing with a robot is almost beside the point, and that nothing fresh was brought to bear on the ever-more-explored theme of AI.

But my mind kept buzzing about Ex Machina into the night, giving me fits when trying to fall asleep. That kind of resonance is always a good thing. I still think the same basic story could have been set 1000 years ago — i.e. without the sci-fi elements. But what’s undeniable is the powerful dramatic story at hand, a beautifully constructed, masterfully played chess game. 9/10